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Many agencies within the federal government collect and disseminate statistical information. This guide presents a selection of frequently requested statistics and data sources by topic.

How are statistics and data different from each other?

In the context of library research, statistics are based on data collected by researchers or agencies. The data has been analyzed and interpreted for the purposes of reporting, often in the form of tables or charts.

Data are the raw facts or numbers in their unorganized form, usually in electronic format that may be stored and used by a computer. Please refer to the Data tab of this guide to find free sources of downloadable data from research funded by federal dollars.